Irish Red Braggot

I am looking to make my first Braggot with one of my favorite beer recipes (an Irish Red Ale). I would appreciate any input on whether this on the right track or not..

Here is the recipe;

Steep the following grains for 20 minutes at 155F:
1/2lb Caramel/Crystal Malt 120L
1/2lb Caramunich Malt
1/2lb Pale Malt (2 Row)

60 minute Boil
2lbs Amber Dry Extract
4lbs Extra Light Dry Extract
1.5 oz Hallertau Hops

15 minutes
1/2 oz Hallertau Hops
1/2 oz Cascade Hops

5 minutes
1/2 oz Cascade Hops

7.5lbs honey after cooled down below 100F

2 packs of Lallemande Abbaye Belgian Ale Yeast (dry)

according to Beersmith;

SG 1.092 FG 1.003 = 11.7%ABV
SRM 12.9
IBU 34.9

Do you think that there will be enough viable yeast left to carbonate? As I want to make this a carbonated beverage unlike my meads. This yeast is capable of 12+% ABV, just not sure if having malt and honey in the scenario will hamper that or not.

What is the size of your brew? See you are putting 7.5 lbs honey

I think it'll be fine. Are you priming it with honey as well? Also, it may actually be beneficial for low carbonation initially, as there will be residual carbonation in the bottles during aging (if you plan to age for a long time).

It's a five gallon batch. I wasn't sure which to carbonate with. I was originally thinking corn sugar (4oz) but honey may be trickier to carbonate with (maybe dissolve in some warm water beforehand?). How much honey would I use to prime a 5 gallon batch?

Thanks for the feedback!

Right now, I am leaning towards the Lallemande Belgian Ale Yeast over Muntons Premium Gold due to the higher ABV but may pitch a sachet of both (the Belgian rehydrated with honey and the Muntons rehydrated with malt).

Assuming you wanted 2.2 which listed out for Irish Red ale ratio for co2 on 5 gal batch would be using 128.36g of honey if you used that to prime =) but the 4oz corn sugar would be on point also.

Vex3521 said:

Assuming you wanted 2.2 which listed out for Irish Red ale ratio for co2 on 5 gal batch would be using 128.36g of honey if you used that to prime =) but the 4oz corn sugar would be on point also.

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Thanks for the conversion. I will probably just stick with the 4oz corn sugar primer that I am comfortable with.

Anytime! Looking forward to hearing how yours comes out!

So I finally brewed this up.. I ended up using 8lbs of honey and adding water to make it 22L (5.8 Gallons). SG is 1.090 and I pitched one sachet of rehydrated Munton's Premium Gold (can go to 10%) to get the Irish Ale taste that I like and a rehydrated sachet of Lallemande Abbaye Belgian Ale yeast (can go to 12-14%). Hopefully I will be bottling this batch in one month with some priming sugar..

Very nice HB! About to brew up an English braggot myself from the AHA website.

Congrats. I just made my first braggot recipe yesterday. Hope yours turns out well.

Sounds like a strong braggot with an ABV hovering around 11%

The English Braggot I'm brewing right now will be between 9.5-10.5%. Smoked maple bacon braggot in secondary is between 12-13%. Smoked bochet braggot in primary is 8.5%.

For some reason most of my braggots end up pretty big. Though I have made several in the 5-7% range. One of my favorites though was the centennial blonde recipe subbed 50% honey. I think that one made it to 5%.

JJack887 said:

Congrats. I just made my first braggot recipe yesterday. Hope yours turns out well.

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Thanks! It has been chugging along since the 12 hour mark. So hopefully it will come thru fantastic!

Pyra said:

Sounds like a strong braggot with an ABV hovering around 11%

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Yes, I am hoping that it won't poop out and have enough viable yeast left to carbonate. My experience with the Lallemande Abbaye yeast so far (with meads) has lasted anywhere from 12.8-13.1%ABV with FGs of 1.002 & 1.006.

HB_in_Subic said:

Thanks! It has been chugging along since the 12 hour mark. So hopefully it will come thru fantastic!



Yes, I am hoping that it won't poop out and have enough viable yeast left to carbonate. My experience with the Lallemande Abbaye yeast so far (with meads) has lasted anywhere from 12.8-13.1%ABV with FGs of 1.002 & 1.006.

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Interesting. I have never gotten any of my meads anywhere near 1.010. My lowest was 1.022. Lallemande makes good yeasts but I have not tried them for a mead yet. I'll have to try them sometime.

The braggot of mine turned out nice but a bit on the sweet side and for some reason the 7/8 cup corn sugar priming did not offer much suds in the finish. Definitely has honey notes and that typical honey amber color. What color did your braggot turn out to be?

Pyra said:

Interesting. I have never gotten any of my meads anywhere near 1.010. My lowest was 1.022. Lallemande makes good yeasts but I have not tried them for a mead yet. I'll have to try them sometime.

The braggot of mine turned out nice but a bit on the sweet side and for some reason the 7/8 cup corn sugar priming did not offer much suds in the finish. Definitely has honey notes and that typical honey amber color. What color did your braggot turn out to be?

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Really? Most of my meads go totally dry unless I use more honey than the yeast can handle. I have been using Safbrew Abbaye quite a bit also. Both Abbaye and T58 are quite palatable at a young age without being too thin and beer-like. Almost as good as CDB. Try one on a traditional with an OG of 1.09.

When it comes to braggots, it will be tough to get a nice head on the finished product unless you have a lower percentage of honey than malts. Try adding some torrified wheat to one of your braggots. Also, if it was really sweet and not a lot of carbonation, you may have residual sugars from priming if your yeast reached its tolerance. I have been doing a lot of experimentation with braggots lately and have been very happy with many of them.

Pyra said:

Interesting. I have never gotten any of my meads anywhere near 1.010. My lowest was 1.022. Lallemande makes good yeasts but I have not tried them for a mead yet. I'll have to try them sometime.

The braggot of mine turned out nice but a bit on the sweet side and for some reason the 7/8 cup corn sugar priming did not offer much suds in the finish. Definitely has honey notes and that typical honey amber color. What color did your braggot turn out to be?

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This braggot is a nice deep red color at pitch. I am sure that it might lighten up in color a little bit over time. I will post a pic of the result at bottling time.

My meads that went low were using the BOMM method (daily degassing and SNAs at 1/3 and 2/3 sugar breaks). In Bray's Dry Yeast experiment (https://www.denardbrewing.com/blog/post/DryBOMMAromatic/), Lallemand Abbaye Belgian Ale Yeast was the one that came closest to his original recipe using a liquid yeast. It has become my yeast of choice for my meads so far, based on taste results. I have some CDB that I am gonna try on a batch in the future.

I bottled this after 31 days in Primary. Tasted a sample before siphoning into the bottling bucket, came out nice. FG was 1.010 = 10.5%ABV. Don't taste or feel the alcohol. Body is similar to the original Irish Red recipe I have made plenty of times. I will post up a pic tomorrow when it is daylight.

Been a long afternoon, bottled two batches (Dopplebock Lager and Irish Red Braggot) and pitched on a new batch of Amber Bock Ale.

I was planning my first braggot and thinking something similar to this recipe. Maybe little less honey, so maybe 1/3 of honey and 2/3 of malts and shooting for 10-12 ABV range. I was wondering if people use yeast nutrients during the fermentation like in making mead? Or is the malts giving enough nutrients for a good fermentation?

I used some nutrients (1 tsp) in the water that I re-hydrated the yeast in. I also put in 1 tsp of nutrients in at 15 minutes to go on the boil. I didn't do anything else nutrient-wise. I let it sit, like I would any beer recipe and gave it 4+ weeks before bottle.

Okay good to know that it probably takes quite a long time to ferment this type of drink. Can't wait to try it out!

So I bottled this on 2/24 with 4.4oz of corn sugar for the primer. FG was 1.010 OG 1.090 = 10.48% ABV

After refrigerating a bottle for 24 hours, I sampled a bottle on St Patties day (day 22 bottle conditioning) and it had zero carbonation. I got a good "pop" when I opened the flip top but that was it. There was a yeast cake in the bottom of the bottle. The braggot tasted like a sweet Irish Red (maybe the priming sugar??). The rest of the batch has yeast in the bottom of the bottles too. So I swirled the rest of the bottles to rouse the yeast. I am going to let them sit for another week and see if it is carbing up any better.


Here is what it looks like today. There is yeast settling on the bottom already after one week. Maybe the yeasties have given up?

As of a couple of weeks ago, it's now fully carbed and quite tasty. Kinda like a thinner Irish Red with high ABV..